‘NETTLE DANCE’ was presented in Gilbert & George’s exhibition ‘JACK FREAK PICTURES’ which was shown in Berlin, Paris, London, Brussels, Salzburg, Athens and Naples from 2009 to 2010. The dominant pictorial element in the ‘JACK FREAK PICTURES’ is the Union Jack, itself an internationally familiar, abstract, geometric pattern and a socially and politically charged symbol. Equally prominent are Gilbert & George themselves in a variety of guises: dancing, gurning, howling, watching, waiting. Sometimes their bodies seem complete; other times they have been fragmented or contorted. Invariably they feature as both subject and object, artwork and artist; they are players in the epic and complex pictorial drama they have created.